This story was originally published by Outlier Media.
Leer en español: Como la administración de Trump agiliza deportaciones sin audiences mediante la remoción acelerada
Federal agents used a little-known immigration policy called “expedited removal” to arrest migrants outside a Detroit courtroom last week.
Congress created expedited removal in 1996, and every president since has used it as part of their immigration enforcement strategy. President Donald Trump, however, has applied it more broadly than his predecessors.
The policy effectively turns low-level immigration officers into judges with little oversight. Understanding it is critical to grasping the mechanics of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration strategy.
What is an expedited removal order?
An expedited removal order is a fast-track process that allows immigration officers to deport certain people without court hearings.
“It's just a piece of paper (signed by) a border patrol officer, but it has the same effect as a deportation order from an immigration judge,” said Ruby Robinson, managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. “There's no way to appeal that decision.”
Under Trump’s policy, expedited removal applies to people who entered the country without authorization and have lived here for fewer than two years, according to the National Immigration Forum, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group.
If someone expresses a “credible fear” of persecution or torture in their home country, ICE must refer them to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for an asylum screening. That interview typically happens quickly and over the phone. If the immigration officer finds the fear not credible, the person can be removed.
Deportations carried out through expedited removal can happen in as little as a day.
A short history of expedited removal
Congress created expedited removal powers as part of a 1996 immigration reform package that was cheered by President Bill Clinton and is now viewed by critics as punitive and unwelcoming to refugees. Initially, expedited removal only applied to people caught crossing the border without permission.
The George W. Bush administration expanded it to cover anyone caught within two weeks of entry and within 100 miles of the border.
In 2019, Trump pushed the law to its limits, applying it to anyone who entered without authorization and had been in the country for fewer than two years.
President Joe Biden rolled back the expanded policy in 2022. But Trump reinstated it soon after returning to office and is directing ICE agents to use it aggressively.
Data from the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit advocacy group, shows that expedited removal peaked in 2013 under President Barack Obama, who oversaw the deportation of 197,613 people through the process that year.
Trump’s expansion of the policy is being challenged in federal court as a violation of the Constitutional guarantee of due process, which applies to everyone in the U.S., regardless of immigration status.
How expedited removal is being used today
To hit a target of deporting 1 million people per year, the Trump administration adopted a new tactic: arresting and deporting people outside courtrooms and immigration offices.
People with active asylum cases aren’t subject to expedited removal. In an apparent workaround, the administration is instructing immigration judges — who are not independent federal judges but employees of the Department of Homeland Security — to immediately dismiss cases at the request of ICE lawyers. Previously, migrants had 10 days to respond before a case could be closed.
ICE attorneys appear to target dismissal requests at people who qualify for expedited removal, then coordinate with the plainclothes agents to arrest them as soon as their hearings end.
“It’s not just happenstance that cases are being dismissed and people are being detained downstairs,” Robinson said, adding: “They’re looking for specific individuals.”
Who is at risk of expedited removal?
People at risk of expedited removal are primarily those who entered the U.S. without authorization and have been here for fewer than two years. That group may include people who sought asylum because returning to their home country would be dangerous.
Those not subject to expedited removal include:
- People with active asylum cases
- Unaccompanied children
- People who overstayed visas
- U.S. citizens
- Permanent legal residents
Critics warn that the lack of oversight over the expedited removal process makes it easier to mistakenly detain or deport people with legal status — or even U.S. citizens.
“There are few checks on the authority of immigration officers to place noncitizens in expedited removal proceedings,” the American Immigration Council wrote in an explainer. “In essence, the law permits a low-level immigration officer to serve both as prosecutor (charged with enforcing the law) and judge (rendering a final decision on the case).”
This article first appeared on Outlier Media and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
